Fire disrupts Lawrence & Memorial Hospital

All surgeries and diagnostic imaging procedures, such as CT scans and X-rays, are canceled today at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital as it continues to recover from a fire Tuesday that cut electricity to portions of the building.

All surgeries and diagnostic imaging procedures, such as CT scans and X-rays, are canceled today at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital as it continues to recover from a fire Tuesday that cut electricity to portions of the building.

Firefighters battled a two-alarm transformer fire outside the New London hospital Tuesday morning that required evacuating the emergency room, canceling surgeries and transporting patients to other hospitals in the state. The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich accepted 11 patients, Backus spokesman Shawn Mawhiney said.

L&M spokeswoman Alina Schwartzman said anyone with a scheduled appointment today needs to call the hospital and reschedule. Visitor access to the facility was limited to one family member per patient Tuesday, and the hospital is discouraging visits today, spokesman Kelly Anthony said.

The emergency room was scheduled to reopen at midnight, Anthony said.

Schwartzman said the hospital was awaiting word from Connecticut Light & Power Co. regarding the repair of two transformers.

The hospital was still running on emergency generators Tuesday night. Four air-conditioners sent by the state Department of Emergency Services were hooked up and cooling hospital wards without power, Anthony said.

He said crews were still checking the two remaining transformers’ fluid levels in anticipation of restarting the system.

“There are concrete barriers that protect the underground transformers,” he said. “One is completely burned out, but the other two look to have been protected.”

Anthony said all three transformers were relatively new, none more than three years old.

Anthony said air quality tests conducted Tuesday afternoon in the emergency department and other hospital sections near the fire came back clean, showing no signs of fumes.

Working to reopen

“We hope to begin returning patients to the emergency department soon and reopen on a limited basis,” he said Tuesday night.

The blaze, which broke out at 10:11 a.m., is believed to have started in the underground electrical transformer room outside the main hospital near the emergency department. The fire was under control two hours later and the cause remains under investigation.

New London Fire Battalion Chief Henry Kydd said firefighters arrived to find fire coming from the vault and impinging on the building and patients rooms above. He said the main goal was to protect the patients and keep the fire from entering the building. Additional manpower was called in because of the heat and humidity.

A regional foam unit from Norwich was called in while firefighters waited for CL&P to shut power down.

“That (foam) was the only way we going to put out this fire,” Kydd said.

The fire forced hospital officials to move the emergency room and several patient units to other areas of the hospital. There were no injuries reported, Schwartzman said.

Page 2 of 2 - Ambulances help out

The region’s largest EMS providers, Norwich-based American Ambulance, had half its fleet of about 20 vehicles staging in New London during the fire and covered paramedic intercept calls normally handled by L& M paramedics.

Michael Aliano, vice president of operations for American Ambulance, said its units were prepared to transport patients to any number of facilities across the state, including Yale-New Haven, Backus and Pequot Medical Center in Groton.

“All facilities have been excellent about pitching in and helping out,” Aliano said. “Everything seems to be running smoothly, a testament to the preparation. The system’s working the way it supposed to be.”